Lac La Ronge, Sask., during the Pisew wildfire. Some residents of nearby Wadin Bay, who disobeyed orders to evacuate, fled to the water several times over multiple days as they fought the fire.Terry Holowach/Supplied
Terry Holowach knew the fire was coming when dense smoke eclipsed the sunlight. It was an ominous sign of what was to come: Residents would soon battle the Pisew wildfire to save their homes, defying an order to evacuate.
Earlier that day in June, the regional government agency directed residents of Wadin Bay – a small cottage community on Lac La Ronge, around 400 kilometres north of Saskatoon – to leave the area because of the out-of-control wildfire. It was one among dozens of fires burning in the province, forcing evacuations and prompting officials to declare a state of emergency the week before.
But about two dozen Wadin Bay residents ignored the order, staying put to protect their homes and cabins, as well as the decades of memories that came with them, from the flames.
This kind of resistance is not unique to Wadin Bay. With climate change leading to a longer, more brutal wildfire season across Canada, tensions are growing between emergency officials who say dissidents put firefighting efforts and rescue crews at risk, and residents who feel there are not enough provincial resources to protect their homes.
Mr. Holowach, a 69-year-old retired waterbomber said he had doubts about whether rescuers could even reach their community. He felt like they were on their own.
“If we would have adhered to the mandatory evacuation order, the community, with no doubt whatsoever, would be completely obliterated,” he said. Mr. Holowach has owned his lakeshore cabin with his wife since the mid-nineties. While he stayed behind to weather the flames, she evacuated.
“We’ll watch it burn from the lakes if we have to,” Mr. Holowach said of the people that defied the order. “But we’re not leaving.”
In recent interviews with The Globe and Mail, Wadin Bay residents defended their decision, saying that none of their homes burned down.
Saskatchewan’s wildfires have led to 33 evacuations in 2025, as of Tuesday, according to the province’s public safety agency. This far exceeds the five-year average of the expected four to five communities evacuated by this time of year. According to the agency, 2,259 values – which include homes, cabins and vehicles – had been lost as of last Thursday. Other provinces are facing the same kind of duress.
Around the same time as the Pisew wildfire, Pimicikamak Cree Nation Chief David Monias chided residents of the Manitoba First Nation who refused to leave, when a blaze threatened their community. Mr. Monias later told The Globe and Mail he felt relieved once everyone was accounted for, and he learned how those who stayed tried to contribute to fire suppression.
And, in 2023, dozens of residents in British Columbia’s North Shuswap region chose to stay to protect their community; although none were official firefighters.
Communities typically have a list of residents who provide essential services and will remain during an evacuation, such as police officers or those who run a grocery store, according to the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency. Residents who are not on that list are strongly urged to leave.
While provinces have varying penalties for people who disobey evacuation orders, including tens of thousands of dollars in fines and jail time, they are rarely imposed, with officials often choosing to focus on education rather than enforcement.
To aid response in B.C., the province is equipping some citizens who work for the BC Wildfire Service in rural and remote communities with basic wildfire-fighting training.
In Manitoba, the Emergency Measures Act allows peace officers to forcibly remove people, though RCMP spokesperson Michelle Lissel said in an email that Mounties have not had to enforce it this year. It was unclear if they had enforced it in prior years.
Some evacuation orders lifted in Nova Scotia, three weeks after Long Lake wildfire began
Some Saskatchewan communities that were evacuated this wildfire season, including Wadin Bay residents, have criticized the provincial government for poor evacuation procedures and for failing to keep their homes safe.
After the northern Saskatchewan village of Denare Beach lost more than 200 homes in a devastating fire in early June, some residents considered launching a class action lawsuit against the province. However, the law firm considering the litigation decided against it because of the complexity of the situation, and its potential to be a prolonged case.
Jack Rozdilsky, an associate professor of disaster and emergency management at York University, said that in Canada, it’s very rare to see legal action taken against those who defy evacuation orders, with officials often preoccupied with fire suppression instead. “But the wildfire behavior could change very quickly,” he said, pointing to fires in California, where people defying evacuation orders had died.
“People can be in an area where they don’t necessarily see the danger outside their window or the danger ahead of them.”
Steve Roberts, vice-president of operations at the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency, steered clear of directly condemning the decision to stay home during a wildfire, when speaking to reporters on Aug. 6. Yet, he warned that emergency services may not be able to help those who ignore an order, if the situation deteriorates.
“If you stay, you [have to] be prepared to stay. You can’t change your mind potentially halfway through, when the fire gets a lot closer,” he said.
A dozer creating a fire guard line southwest of the Lac La Ronge community.Supplied
Mr. Roberts noted Wadin Bay is a FireSmart community, which means residents hold regular cleanups of nearby forested areas and take other measures meant to mitigate fire risk. In previous years, the community also came up with the funding needed to build a local fire hall and purchase fire equipment.
“Wildfire protection and wildfire response is a shared responsibility by community leaders and by individuals, to take measures to protect themselves and, in some cases, be part of the effort to avoid wildfire impacts,” he said.
The Pisew wildfire that threatened Wadin Bay was first reported on May 21, at under 1,000 hectares. By the time it prompted an evacuation order on June 2, the wildfire had spread to 83,630 hectares – about the size of Calgary. It was lifted 10 days later. While the province’s public safety agency has been spread thin since May, Mr. Roberts said the “entire Pisew fire was being managed” during that time.
The residents who stayed in Wadin Bay included one former and one current conservation officer, a retired nurse and a paramedic, according to people who spoke with The Globe. Some had firefighting training, but none were trained wildfire fighters, residents said.
They used wildfire-grade sprinklers and hoses, sprayed down hot spots with portable water tanks and created a fire break by pushing back the tree line with a bulldozer – tactics they learned while defending their homes against another wildfire a decade ago. The residents in Wadin Bay had disobeyed a similar order in 2015.
Saskatchewan lifts fire ban as evacuees from some Manitoba communities return home
The act of guerilla wildfire-fighting is uncommon, but is more likely to happen as fires occur more frequently. A study from the Canadian Journal of Forest Research suggests the number of large fires has doubled over the past half-century, and they are getting larger.
As the Pisew wildfire reached Mr. Holowach’s property this June, it scorched a storage compound, detonating what he believed were gas or propane tanks. He acknowledged the residents’ actions could appear reckless, but said he was confident the group knew when the blaze was coming too close, and relied on their ability to escape by boat.
The residents kept several boats at the edge of Lac La Ronge, prepared with treasured items, clothes, water and snacks. Mr. Holowach said the escape boats were large and could handle rough water. If needed, they could have travelled to unaffected land or cottages of friends who live elsewhere.
The residents fled to the water on the first day, and returned that evening. They enacted that escape plan several times over the next couple of days before the fire calmed.
For Michelle Gale, the co-owner of a local auto parts shop whose primary residence is at Wadin Bay, the success of the community efforts have had lasting effects.
She said the group was well-prepared and she never feared for her life while fighting the fire. However, Ms. Gale recalls howling wind and fireballs – seemingly made of ignited, wind-thrusted debris – whirring through the air like birds. She has had trouble sleeping in the weeks following the wildfire, and is certain it was similar for others. She worries it could be a form of post-traumatic stress disorder.
“We’re not in the imminent threat that we were on June 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th, but there’s still fire all around us,” she said in early August, when the Pisew wildfire had more than doubled in size to 220,000 hectares.
Still, Ms. Gale said she does not regret standing her ground to save her home.
“If it wasn’t for the people that stayed behind and protected Wadin Bay, Wadin Bay would not be here.”